We have been blessed by the arrival of our newest daughter, Cate Virginia. She came almost 2 weeks ago, weighing in at 8 lb 10.5 oz, and was 20.5" long. They originally measured her in at 23" long, but when we took her to see the doctor at 3 days old, she measured 20.5", and I was able to witness the accurate measurement. So we don't actually have a total giant on our hands. The labor and delivery went very well. I'll post the details below, so if you don't feel like reading about someone else's labor experience, then you can just look at the pictures :) But for those of you who are interested, and also to get the experience recorded, I'll fill you in on the details.
Cate Virginia is named sort of after me, and after my grandmother on my father's side, whose name was Virginia. She has been such a sweet baby so far - she really couldn't be any better. We feel so blessed to have her in our family!
Cate was born in the same delivery room as Adam.
All four of our children together for the first time.
All of a sudden my "baby" was sooo big! How does that happen??
Grandma Halliday and Cate. We enjoyed having my mom here for 2 1/2 weeks. I wish she could have stayed much longer!! She was such a great help to us!!
Sweet baby Cate.
Adam loves holding his baby sister. He says "hold you", which used to be meant only for me to hold him, but now it also means for him to hold Cate.
Wrinkly newborn baby feet. I love it.
What is she thinking about, I wonder?
A recent photo. They change SO quickly!
Now for Cate's birth story:
Be forewarned - if you have had hard or horrible labor experiences, you may not enjoy reading this. But do realize that I recognize how blessed I am to have had good labor experiences for the most part, and I understand how hard labor can be for others. I can honestly say that I truly enjoyed my labor and delivery experience with Cate, and I understand that some of you may think I am crazy, as I know for certain some of you do :)
I woke up at about 3 am and couldn't go back to sleep. I started reading, since I couldn't sleep, and I noticed I was having contractions about 7 minutes apart. I read for about an hour and then walked around to see if the contractions would continue, which they did. I have to say I was pretty excited, since I was 5 days past my due date, and was a little tired of people commiserating with me, since I truly loathe being commiserated with, especially when I am not miserable! (and I have made a note to myself that I will not tell people my exact "due date" again)
So at about 5:30 I went for my usual morning walk with my mom, after telling Paul that he needed to get ready to go to the hospital. My contractions were still 7 min apart. We started walking, and soon there after my contractions moved a little closer together, so we cut the walk short and headed back to the house so Paul and I could head to the hospital. Paul and I left the house by 6:00 and arrived around 6:30. We headed into the delivery room and met our nurse, who, by the look of her, doubted very much that I was actually in labor. She asked, "So, what's going on?" The doctor came in around 7 am, and I was 4-5 cm dilated.
My plan was to have a completely natural labor again, and I was surprised at how different this labor was from Adam's. Adam came very quickly, but Cate was taking her time. I was grateful for that, since I was worried about making it to the hospital in time. As it turned out, I didn't need to worry about that at all. We made it to the hospital in plenty of time.
I walked, or paced, throughout my entire labor, and was able to completely relax and let my body do it's thing. I didn't find any of my contractions completely unbearable, or even close to it, really. There were really only a few contractions where I had to change my breathing pattern, which were right during transition, so I was basically done at that point. My contractions never got closer than 5 minutes apart through my entire labor. They did get stronger, but I questioned whether they were doing very much, since they were so far apart. My doctor came in at 10:45 and I was at 8 cm, which was a relief to me, because I didn't want to be sent home. My nurse (which was a new nurse that was awesome) was shocked. She said to Paul, "I want you to know that this is not "normal" - she is amazing!" (I figure I can brag a little :) ) So by 11:45 I was 9.5 cm, the doctor broke my water, and Cate was born at 12:06 pm. It was wonderful! I was so happy she was finally here!
The things that helped me the most during labor:
1. Walking - laboring in bed is the worst thing for me. I've heard laboring in the big tub is nice, but I didn't try that.
2. Music - listening to relaxing music was helpful to me.
3. Laboring with my water still not broken - It is much less painful to labor with the waters still intact. I have done it both ways - just take my word for it.
4. Relax, relax, relax. - Letting your body work for you and making every contraction count. It's surprising how much less discomfort or pain you experience when you are able to completely relax your body. I researched both the Bradley method and the Hypnobirthing method, so I used what I liked from both of those.
Now let me tell you that I do not think epidurals are horrible things - I had one with Samantha and it was great. But I must say the recovery after a natural childbirth is awesome! I liked it so much better, and I love being aware of everything my body is doing. Natural birth is not for everyone, but it is for me.
Have I ever mentioned how much I love pacifiers, and how happy I am that Cate took her binky from the very start? I'm sure some of you object to pacifiers, but after my experience with Adam, who would not take a binky no matter how hard I tried, and how he was my worst sleeper as an infant, I am grateful for babies who take binkies.
But she definitely looks cuter without the binky :) She going to be another brown-eyed girl, like Samantha.
Samantha is such a help with the new baby.
I love this picture, even though it's a little fuzzy.
